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Friday, July 20, 2007

Kelli over at" There is No Place Like Home", is the host of Friday Show and Tell. She explains it this way:"Welcome to Show and Tell Friday! Do you have a something special to share with us? It could be a trinket from grade school, a piece of jewelry, an antique find. Your show and tell can be old or new. Use your imagination and dig through those old boxes in your closet if you have to! Feel free to share pictures and if there's a story behind your special something, that's even better!"Click on the link below to join the list!There is no place like home

Well here goes, the more you share, the more another learns about you. My show and tell for today is about a young woman who, had been married 12 years, and had 4 children. She wasn't even sure if anyone noticed her let alone thought she had anything to say. But boy did she ever! This young woman spent every spare moment when the children were sleeping, and her husband was still at work, creating. She loved the initials of her name, and they didn't change when she married. She was JAGG... like the car, unique and creative. A few months after she married she began a saga that has not ended to this day. She began to put to paper her ideas. But she kept the ideas to herself.

Here is the binder 19 years later.

One day she decided she was bursting at the seams and needed to get these thoughts and ideas out. The town she lived in had a weekly newspaper, so one day she walked in and asked to speak to the editor. You see after studying the paper for a few months she determined that the paper needed a craft column. So she went in met with the editor, and sold the idea that the paper needed a craft column, and that she should do it. This woman was not on line( had a very old computer)and not a very good camera. But for some reason the editor saw the sheer courage of this woman and hired her on the spot! This woman had not worked out of the home for 11 years and hadn't conversed with adults besides her husband in a long time.

So she told the editor that the column was to be called The Craft Corner, and the housewife would write under the pen name of Jagg Creations! The editor actually invited this woman to lunch! She gets emotional thinking about this even today, lunch, away from the children, and with the editor(a woman)To be very clear, this woman is crafty but not in a "looks like you bought it way" but in the way the an average person is. This woman has many skills which she is fairly good at, but loves to constantly learn new as apposed to mastering one. So crafting had begun.

The projects she created were under the slogan of "low cost no cost" and were things that she did with her own children. The first article was how to make a spider using her child's hand prints and washable paints. She tried to create crafts that would be memories to. Then she began to experiment with ideas and created projects. The editor would come over every Thursday and collect the article, then take a photo of the finished product. She decoupaged a dresser, made ornaments, showed creative ways to take 4 children to the grocery store and so much more. Then in June, nearly 7 months after she began she had the courage to step a little further into the world.

Every year the town had a celebration, and this woman went to a city council meeting( after being placed on the minutes) and asked the town to hire her to organize a Craft Corner for the Kids to run 3 days straight. The council agreed and gave her a spending budget too. The Craft Corner for the kids was a huge success, and the woman continued to come into focus.

Here is the last article published by Jagg Creations for the newspaper because her husband had taken a job in another state. Rarely did this woman put her own children in the photos, as her husband was a police officer, but in the last column she included her beautiful little girl.

When all the boxes were packed, the house walked through a car came up the lane and low and behold it was the editor. She had tears in her eyes and handed a letter to this blooming young lady. The letter was a reference letter. Here are a few sentences that it has...Jennifer is a person of dedication, who is self-motivated and conscientious of her work.(and) Aside from the Craft Corner Jennifer was a creative contributor to the newspaper in all arenas: editorials,features, news and promotions. Her ideas brought vitality and stimulation to our publication.

Now many of us have heard a loved one recite such kind words, but this woman had not heard such things since she had become a wife.

When this woman moved to her new home, her mother who lived in Florida, had sent her a package of clippings. You see her mother was so proud of her 6th child that she had a Utah newspaper mailed to her each and every week. And being a mom herself wasn't all to sure if her daughter would have saved her writings. This woman became a child once more and wept openly as she is doing now.

But this show and tell has a moral at the end. Throughout the years of being so devoted to being a mother this young woman was afraid that all of her skills were only of value to herself and her family. That alone was a silent tear to her insides, as God could give one the ability to create, and then not finish. But whoa, she then understood. A talent or gift is yours to use and share. It is the fulfillment and completion of oneself if it does not take place of the responsibilities of wife/mother.

So the tale I share today is the blossoming of a young woman into a woman. A woman who has never slowed down, and started a county wide youth program for the children in her new state( the county is larger than 6 eastern states) and brought in $40,000.00 of donations into the program. And it never took her away from her children as they went to each activity. In all irony, 2 elementary schools asked her to head there PTA's knowing full well she home schooled. And then this woman not so young, moved once more, and within a few months stepped up as a youth director for the home school group that has more than 80 families as members.

But most of all she has been a better wife and mother, all the while staying with her children. She now writes daily, she has(7 blogs) 2 that she shares with all and has written almost 400 posts since December 27, 2006.

So my dear friends, be true to who you are. God has blessed us each with talents and gifts and abilities not to be hidden but shared. Thank you for reading how I came into focus as a child of the Lord.

22 comments:

Jennifer, I'm so honored to be the first to leave a comment on your Show & Tell. You are truly a remarkable young woman and one I am so thankful to call friend. You have only just begun!!!!!((hugs))Susan

I'm amazed! Why? Because you are one amazing woman! I can tell you are a reall go getter and this story of your blossoming has proven me right! I'm so thrilled to have crossed paths with someone so accomplished! Keep on going girl!

Wonderful story and I must say I smiled that "oh yeah" familiar kind of smile, when I read about your reasoning for not including pictures, since my dad was a police officer. I really have enjoyed checking out your blog. We homeschooled for 17 years and it was an added joy to parenthood.